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River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

river-runner.samlearner.com

111–120 of 128 posts

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#111
post #87

One thing which I suppose isn't surprising, but still was amazing to see at scale, is I put a drop in Colorado that ended up in the Gulf of Mexico. As the camera followed the path, it's nothing but farms, with the odd city sprinkled in. I got bored and left in Nebraska, but I imagine it's like that the whole way. It's obvious it takes a lot of land to feed everyone, but to see it like that really drove it home.

Depending on where you placed that drop in Colorado it also could've ended up in the Pacific. The continental divide is in Colorado and all water west of the divide will eventually drain into the Pacific and all water east will drain to the Atlantic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Divide_of_the_Amer...

The Great Basin is an endorheic basin (no outflow) located west of the Rockies, so not quite all the water.

From Wikipedia: “ The hydrographic Great Basin is a 209,162-square-mile (541,730 km2) area that drains internally. All precipitation in the region evaporates, sinks underground or flows into lakes (mostly saline). As observed by Fremont, creeks, streams, or rivers find no outlet to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean. ”

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#112
Really nice work. However, I would really love to have a no animation option. Just show me the route from the continental view. I pretty much have to reload to get it back to the starting point reliably. Fun to click into the animation, but not every time. Thanks for putting this up!

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#114

It's pretty nuts to me that a raindrop that falls in Crow Agency, Montana will drain into the Gulf of Mexico!!! :p :) xx

I wonder how long that journey takes? Assuming no evaporation of our sample drop.

Napkin math.

Longest run I've seen (posted in another comment above) starting in NW Montana: https://river-runner.samlearner.com/?lng=-113.26136901231438...

5570 km (3461 miles)

Rivers fluctuate between 3 to 15 mph on average (quick Googling).

At an average of 3mph: ~48 days

15mph: ~9.6 days

7mph: ~20.6 days

I'm sure the time of year you decide to run the experiment would change the results pretty drastically.

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#115

Really nice work. However, I would really love to have a no animation option. Just show me the route from the continental view. I pretty much have to reload to get it back to the starting point reliably. Fun to click into the animation, but not every time. Thanks for putting this up!

+1 for the no-animation option. It takes me at least 10 seconds between each attempt.

Love the visualization!

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#116
Pretty nice. I know the hydrology of my area pretty well. I'm not sure if they're using USGS hydrology maps because a water droplet on either side of two water sheds flows to the nearest river by distance, not how things actually flow, but it's pretty close.

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#117

A friend of mine has a house set on one of the boundaries, the west half of his roof empties into the Mississippi, the east half into Lake Michigan.

Waukesha?

It's actually an interesting regional issue, because the allocation of Great Lakes water is ultimately governed by a treaty with Canada. Taking water out of the Great Lakes watershed is prohibited without being granted by an exception.

This became a local issue in Waukesha, because the town is on the boundary, so they have two water systems, and the one on the Mississippi side got contaminated. They eventually got permission to connect the whole town to the Lake Michigan side, by agreeing to return all of the drain water back to that side.

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